It can sometimes be interesting (i.e. RIDICULOUS) to hear the advice of a man on how women can achieve equality. Now, of course men can be feminists…I see it all the time. Every movement needs allies and the feminist movement is no exception. However, the first and (by far) most important thing that men can do if they REALLY want to help is to listen and push the movement in the direction that women are already taking it. Clearly, Khalil... Read more
I want to take a temporary (temporary, I promise!) break from our moratorium on headscarves to highlight this article, which actually deals with many of the points I brought up in a post a while ago, asking why people get so caught up in headscarves and burqas when there are so many bigger fish to fry. Faisal al Yafai, a London-based journalist, writes on the Guardian’s Comment is free about the need for Western feminists to get over the veil,... Read more
Sudanese women use politics to inspire fashion. More news about the four Iranian women’s rights activists who have been jailed. Payvand News features an article from one of the three women. Faisal al Yafai writes eloquently about feminism in the Muslim Middle East and Western feminists’ problem with the veil. Cycads weighs in. Clothing store Mango plans to open in Tehran by the end of the year. I am jealous. Afghan women become policewomen in Herat. Via GlobalVoices. Rickshaw Diaries... Read more
Today, let’s briefly re-visit one “frontier” of America’s War of on Terror. About a month or so ago we in the West began to hear about Dr. Aafia Siddiqui (pictured right), an American-educated Pakistani doctor who disappeared from Karachi, Pakistan in 2003, who had all of sudden re-appeared. It is reported that on her way to the airport, with her three very young children, she was kidnapped by American forces (denied by them). She has since turned up as of... Read more
Last year, the British program Dispatches went undercover in a Mosque in Britain to expose “radical” Islam functioning in Britain. I’m sure the main point of that program was to scare inform Britons about radical Muslims who lurk in every corner. The masjid in question is funded partly by Saudi (although many masajid around the world are) and at least some of the members subscribe to the Salafi form of Islam (erroneously called Wahhabism in the program). Coming from a... Read more
…but somehow the news article that covers it decides to completely change the subject to whether or not Islam condones/accepts polygamy. Yeah…I don’t quite understand the flow either. I was super excited to see the headline (“Iranian women battle the system”). It was like a “Yeah! Finally, Muslim women are being portrayed as really strong revolutionaries who are fighting against injustice WITHOUT the help of ‘Western’ feminists! Woo.” sort of moment for me. Plus that sweet picture of Parvin Ardalan... Read more
Study blames mums for Afghan child mortality Seriously? The article tells us: High child mortality rates in conservative Afghanistan are linked not just to war but to mothers being uneducated and having little or no say when their children need medical help, a study has found. And according to the headline, this is somehow the mothers’ fault? We can give them the benefit of the doubt here, and assume that the intention was not to actually lay the blame at... Read more
Women abandoned by their husbands in Bahrain staged two sit-ins to highlight the legal challenges they face in dissolving their marriages. Al-Ahram looks at a recent fatwa that allows those with mental handicaps to marry. Achelois highlights the beyond-horrific treatment that some domestic maids receive in Saudi Arabia. May Allah grant them justice. Arab News gives details on the latest case. Bahman Motamedian’s film Khastegi, which aired at the Venice Film Festival this week, focuses on transsexuals and the difficulties... Read more
“Lesbian film” was one sensationalist headline I read while researching up and coming Egyptian director Aiten Amin’s short 10 minute film Ragelha (‘Her man’). I admit I was hesitant to critique the movie in my post, given the response we had when we discussed the documentary Gay Muslims and the movie A Jihad for Love.* But before I decided to write or not to write, like a good journalist I tracked down the director and got a copy of the... Read more
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a critique of a LA Times blog post about and Egyptian organization that is working to combat sexual harassment in Egypt. The BBC News has now has a piece on its website about Egyptian women and sexual harassment as well. The two articles are different. The LA Times story was written as a more traditional story that did a profile of Egyptians, male and female, working to stop sexual harassment. The BBC piece... Read more
Muslimah Media Watch
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